"  8  A  M  SON'S      11  I  D  I>  L  E  ." 


On   Friday,   March   27th,    1863. 


BRING   THE   DAY   OF 


HUMILIATION,  FASTING   AND  PRAYER, 


Appointed  by  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States. 


BY    THE 


Jit.  Rev.  STEPHENELLTOTT,  I).  D. 

C ector  of  Christ  Church,  and  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese  of  Georgia. 


Oat  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat,  and  out  of  the  strong  came  forth  sweet- 
ness."— Judges  xiv  :  14. 


Item,  (tap: 


M,  BOYKIN  &  CO.,  STEAM  BOOK  A.XD  JOB  PRINTERS. 

1863/     ' 


•  >>>n»v»mimiMMtMmMH»>M>Mtn>  w»tt¥¥>' 


"»»»TT»T»»* 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/samsonsriddleserOOelli 


SAMSON'S     RIDDLE.' 


A  SERMON 


fetair  ittn  m  w>m\ 


On  Friday,  March   27th,   1863. 


BEING   THE  DAY  OF 


HUMILIATION,  FASTING  AND  PEAYEE, 
i 

Appointed  by  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States. . 


BY    THE 


Rt.  Rev.  STEPHEN  ELLIOTT,  D.  L\, 

Rectoe  of  Christ  Church,  and  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese  of  Geoegia, 


"  Out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat,  and  out  of  the  strong  came  forth  sweet- 
ness."— Judges  xiv  :  14. 


ton,  <tarp: 


BURKE,  BOYKIN  &  CO.,  STEAM  BOOK  A.ND  JOB  PRINTERS. 

1863. 


SAVANNAH,  April  6th,  18631 

Right  Reverend  and  very  Dear  Sir: 

At  a  meeting  held  in  Christ  Church,  of  the  following  "Wardens  and  Ves- 
trymen of  said  Church,  a  resolution  was  adopted,  requesting  you  to  furnish 
for  publication  a  copy  of  the  sermon  preached  in  Christ  Church,  on  the 
day  of  Fasting,  Humiliation  and  Prayer,  27th  March  last,  believing  that  the 
views  presented  are  eminently  calculated  to  further  the  cause  of  the  Con* 

federacy. 

W.  P.  HUNTER,      i    m    , 

\   Wardens. 
¥M.  H.  CUTLER,  ) 

W.  THORNE  WILLIAMS,  1 
ROBT.  HABERSHAM, 
GEORGE  A.  GORDON,        f-  Vestrymen. 
JOHN  WILLIAMSON, 
P.  M.  KOLLOCK,  J 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Stephen  Elliott. 


SAVANNAH,  April  9th,  1863, 

To  the   Wardens  and  Vestry  of  Christ  Church,  Savannah  : 

Gentlemen: — If  the  sermon  delivered  by  me  on  the  27th  ulfc,  the  day 
of  Fasting,  Humiliation  and  Prayer,  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  Con- 
federate States,  can  be  of  any  service  to  the  cause  of  the  Confederate 
States,  most  heartily  do  I  consent  to  its  publication. 

My  heart's  desire'  is,  that  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States  may  ever 
keep  before  them  the  stern  moral  issues  which  are  involved  in  our  pre- 
sent struggle,  and  may  never  consent  to  sacrifice  one  of  them  to  any  pre- 
mature yearning   for  peace. 

Very  respectfully  your  friend  and  Rector, 

STEPHEN  ELLIOTT. 
To  the  Wardens  and  Vestry  of  Christ  Church,  Savannah. 


$0  tit*  ®Uvc$  H  ito  §mm  of  ®m$w. 


The  President  of  the  Confederate  States  having  issued  his  Proclamation 
appointing  Friday,  March  27th  inst.,  as  a  day  of  Fasting,  Humiliation  and 
Prayer,  and  inviting  the  people  of  the  said  States  "to  repair  on  that  day 
to  their  usual  places  of  public  worship  and  join  in  prayer  to  Almighty 
God,  that  he  will  continue  his  merciful  protection  over  our  oause;  that  he 
will  scatter  our  enemies  and  set  at  naught  their  evil  designs,  and  that  he 
will  graciously  bestow  to  our  beloved  country  the  blessings  of  Peace  and 
Security." 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Stephen  Elliott,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  Diocese  of  Georgia,  do  direct  the  Clergy  of  said  Diocese  to 
assemble  their  congregations  upon  that  day,  and  to  keep  the  Fast  with 
thankful  hearts,  and  with  broken  and  contrite  spirits. 

Upon  the  occasion  of  the  Fast,  the  Clergy  will  use  the  following  ser- 
vice :  * 

Morning  Prayer  as  usual  to  the   Psalter. 

Psalms  of  the  day,  3d,  1th,  34th. 


1.  Lesson.     Nehemiah,  ch.  IV. 

2.  Lesson.     Matthew,  ch.  VI. 
Use  the  whole  Litany. 

Immediately  before  the  general  Thanksgiving,  introduce  the  Confession 
which  precedes  the  Epistle  in  the  service  for  Ash-Wednesday  and  the  fol- 
lowing prayers: 

PRAYER. 

O  most  mighty  and  gracious  God,  thy  mercy  is  over  all  thy  works,  but 
in  special  manner  hath  been  extended  towards  us,  whom  thou  hast  so 
powerfully  and  wonderfully  defended.  Thou  hast  showed  us  terrible  things 
that  we  might  see  how  powerful  and  gracious  a  God  thou  art;  how  able 
and  ready  to  help  those  who  trust  in  thee.  "We  therefore  present  ourselves 
before  thy  Divine  Majesty  to  offer  a  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving, 
for  that  thou  heardest  us  when  we  called  in  our  trouble  and  didst  not 
cast  out  our  prayer  which  we  made  before  thee  in  our  past  distress.  And, 
we  beseech  thee,  make  us  truly  sensible  now  of  thy  mercy  as  we  were 
then   of  our  danger;    and  give   us  hearts  always   ready   to   express  our 


thankfulness,  not  only  by  words,  but  also  by  our  lives,  in  being  more  obe- 
dient to  thy  holy  commandments.  Continue,  we  beseech  thee,  this  thy 
goodness  to  us,  that  we,  whom  thou  hast  saved,  may  serve  thee  in  holi- 
ness and  righteousness  all  the  days  of  our  life,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord  and  Saviour.     Amen. 

PRAYER. 

0  most  mighty  Lord  God,  who  reignest  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  men; 
who  hast  power  in  thy  hand  to  cast  down  and  to  raise  up,  to  save  thy  ser- 
vants and  rebuke  their  enemies,  let  thine  ears  be  now  open  unto  our 
prayers  and  thy  merciful  eyes  upon  our  trouble  and  our  danger.  0  Lord,  do 
thou  judge  our  cause  in  righteousness  and  mercy,  and  whereiu-soever  we 
have  offended  against  thee,  or  injured  our  neighbor,  make  us  truly  sensi- 
ble of  it  and  deeply  penitent  for  it.  "We  humbly  confess  that  we  are  un- 
worthy of  the  manifold  goodness  vouchsafed  us  in  the  struggle  for  our 
rights,  yet  we  are  bold,  because  of  thy  long  suffering,  to  pray  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  it  and  to  supplicate  thy  blessing  upon  us  and  our  arms.  Cov- 
er the  heads  of  our  soldiers  in  the  day  of  battle,  and  send  thy  fear  before 
them  that  our  enemies  may  flee  at  their  presence.  Establish  us  in  the 
rights  thou  hast  given  us,  in  our  Government  and  in  our  Laws,  in  our  Re- 
ligion, and  in  all  our  holy  Ministries.  The  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor 
the  battle  to  the  strong,  but  our  trust  is  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God. 
Hear  us,  0  Lord,  for  the  glory  of  thy  name  and  for  thy  truth's  sake, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Given  under  my  hand  this  twenty-first  day  of  March,  A.  D.,  1863. 

STEPHEN  ELLIOTT, 
Bish,  Prot.  Epis.  Church,  Diocese  Ga. 


JF  txmttn. 


Judges  :  Chapt.  XIV,  vv.  12,  13,  14. 

12.  "  J.?zc?  Samson  said  unto  them:  I  will  noiv  put  forth  a 
riddle  unto  you  ;  if  you  can  certainly  declare  it  me  within  the 
seven  days  of  the  feast  and  find  it  out,  then  I  loill  give  you 
thirty  sheets  and  thirty  change  of  garments. 

13.  "  But  if  ye  cannot  declare  it  me,  then  shall  ye  give  me 
thirty  sheets  and  thirty  change  of  garments.  And  they  said  un- 
to him,  Put  forth  thy  riddle,  that  we  may  hear  it. 

14.  uAnd  he  said  unto  them,  Out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat, 
and  out  of  the  strong  came  forth  sweetness." 

There  has  been  for  some  time  past  a  deep  and  wide  spread 
yearning  for  peace.  It  has  exhibited  itself  in  the  greediness 
with  which  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States  have  listen- 
ed to  every  rumor  of  intervention  that  has  floated  across 
the  Atlantic,  and  in  the  credulity  with  which,  they  have  be- 
lieved that  the  recent  political  movements  in  the  United 
States  meant  anything  more  than  the  customary  struggle  for 
power.  It  is  a  natural  yearning,  especially  in  a  people  un- 
accustomed as  we  have  been  to  a  state  of  warfare,  for  the 
human  mind  abhors  anxiety  and  doubtfulness,  and  shrinks 
from  a  condition  of  things  which  forces  it  to  live  entirely  in 
the  present  and  for  the  present.  With  a  war  pressing  upon  us 
which  isxontinually  changing  its  features  and  enlarging  its 
proportions — to-day  a  war  for  the  Union,  and  to-morrow  a 
war  for  emancipation — now  waged  with  the  power  of  an 
ordinary  government,  and  then  with  forces  almost  unprece- 
dented in  modern  history — there  is  for  us  not  even  a  con- 
jectural future.  We  can  form  no  plans  of  life,  nor  look  with 
reasonable  probability  upon  the  results  of  any  undertaking. 
Our  households  are  kept  in  perpetual  agitation — our  pursuits 
are  irregular  and  anomalous — our  feelings  oscillate  between 
excitement  and  depression — our  affections  are  ever  on  the 


6  A  SERMON. 

rack  of  cruel  suspense.  Under  conditions  like  these  the 
mind  and  the  heart  will  both  long  for  peace  ;  for  rest  from 
an  excitement  that  is  wearing  them  out ;  will  crave,  if  only 
for  a  little  while,  a  recurrence  of  those  days,  when  the  sound 
of  war  was  not  heard  in  the  land,  and  when  the  sun  did  not 
cast  its  setting  rays  upon  fields  of  blood  and  carnage. 

But  this  yearning  for  peace  has  no  smack  of  submission 
in  it.  That  has  not  entered  into  the  thoughts  of  any  body. 
It  is  really  nothing  more  than  a  natural  wish  that  an  useless 
strife  should  cease ;  an  earnest  desire  that  a  struggle  should 
be  ended,  which  can  end  but  in  one  way.  When  the  peace 
which  is  longed  for  is  embodied  in  words,  it  invariably  in- 
cludes the  ideas  of  entire  independence  and  complete  na- 
tionality— independence  from  all  the  bonds,  whether  politi- 
cal, commercial  or  social,  which  have  hitherto  hindered  our 
development  —  nationality,  with  our  whole  territory  pre- 
served to  us,  and  with  no  entangling  alliances  binding  us  for 
the  future.  This  is  its  whole  scope  and  meaning,  and  is 
very  distinct  from  any  such  fainting  of  the  spirit  as  would 
precede  submission.  It  is  rather  the  token  of  a  restless  en- 
ergy, which  pants  to  enter  untrammeled  upon  that  new 
career  of  freedom  which  it  is  working  out  for  itself,  and 
which  seems  to  rise  before  it  in  brightness  and  grandeur,  and 
to  beckon  it  onward  to  glory  and  happiness.  The  courage 
of  the  Confederate  States  is  not  failing,  but  its  passive  en- 
durance is  sorely  taxed,  and  like  a  beleagured  lion,  it  chafes 
against  the  restraints  which  keep  it  from  its  native  haunts, 
and  rages  because  it  cannot  at  once  strike  to  the  earth  all 
the  enemies  who  encompass  and  goad  it,  even  while  they 
can  never  either  destroy  it  or  make  it  captive.  ^With  a 
bound  and  a  roar,  the  Lord  of  the  forest  will  one  day  break 
through  the  hosts  which  surround  him,  but  until  his  oppor- 
tunity comes,  he  must  bide  his  time  and  be  satisfied  with 
striking  terror  into  his  hunters  by  the  lessons  which  he  may 
give  them,  of  his  fierceness  and  energy. 

But  God  has  thought  it  best  for  us  that  this  cruel  war 
should  endure  yet  longer  and  should  be  waged  with  an  in- 
creased ferocity,  if  not  with  augmented  forces.  Our  sins  are 
to  be  more  heavily  punished,  at  the  same  time  that  our  faith 


eti 


A  SERMOK.  7 

is  fo  be  more  thoroughly  sifted,  and  our  submission  to 
his  will  made  more  complete  and  perfect.  The  causes 
which  led  to  this  war — many  of  the  circumstances  which 
have  accompanied  it  and  the  marvellous  manifestations  of 
himself  which  God  has  made  throughout  it — the  mighty 
interests  of  a  moral  and  religious  nature  which  are  bound 
up  in  its  results — all  forbid  us  from  looking  upon  it  as  a  mere 
conflict  for  power.  We  must  take  the  Divine  will  into  all 
our  reasonings  about  it,  and  our  humiliation  to-day  must 
occupy  itself  in  helping  us  to  school  ourselves  into  an  ac- 
quiesence  with  his  divine  arrangements.  We  may  feel  sure, 
seeing  how  visibly  he  has  fought  for  us — how  strikingly 
he  has  supported  us  through  our  hours  of  mortal  peril — 
how  he  has  strengthened  us  in  our  weakness,  and  comforted 
us  in  our  desolation — that  whatever  he  may  order  for  us  in 
the  conduct  of  this  struggle,  shall  be  for  our  ultimate  bless- 
ing, and  that  we  ourselves  shall  one  day  see  it  and  confess 
it.  It  may  be  a  bitter  disappointment  to  us  that  the  dove 
has  returned  to  the  ark  without  the  olive  leaf  in  her  mouth, 
thus  notifying  us  that  the  waters  of  strife  have  not  yet  sub* 
sided,  but  the  ark  is  still  in  safety  and  under  the  guidance 
of  Him  whose  eye  never  sleepeth  and  whose  love  never 
faileth !  Let  us,  then,  resume  our  sacred  work  of  stern  re- 
sistance ;  let  us  pray  for  fortitude,  for  patience,  for  endu- 
rance, for  faith ;  let  us  be  satisfied  that  there  are  lessons  of 
deep  moral  import  which  are  yet  to  be  evolved  from  the 
continuance  of  this  struggle,  and  we  shall  discover  in  God's 
own  time  that  "  out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat,  and  out  of 
the  strong  came  forth  sweetness." 

There  is  something  very  delightful  in  this  word  Peace.  It 
strikes  upon  the  ear  of  a  tumultuous  and  ever  agitated  world 
with  a  musical  softness  that  is  wonderfully  attractive.  We 
associate  with  its  presence,  comfort  and  ease  and  prosperity 
and  love.  All  that  is  brightest  in  the  home  and  in  the 
heart  is  wrapped  up  in  it.  The  pictures  of  fancy,  the  dreams 
of  poetry,  the  richest  promises  of  the  gospel  are  all  woven 
out  of  its  golden  hues.  The  sequestered  valley,  with  its 
murmuring  stream  and  its  quiet  happiness — the  cultivated 
plain,  basking  in  the  sunshine  and  covered  all  over  with  the 


8  A   SERMON. 

luxuriant  harvest — the  crowded  city,  as  it  lies  asleep  under 
the  soft  moonbeams,  its  hum  of  industry  stilled  by  the 
inexorable  decree  of  nature — the  placid  waters,  reflecting  as 
in  a  mirror,  the  softened  forms  of  the  huge  monsters  which, 
when  awakened  from  their  slumbers,  are  to  bear  across  the 
ocean  the  products  of  the  earth — are  some  of  the  scenes 
which  we  have  beef!  accustomed  to  harmonize  with  the 
idea  of  Peace.  And  when  we  have  enlarged  the  scope  of 
our  vision,  and  risen  upon  imagination's  airy  wings,  we  em* 
brace  in  the  same  idea  of  Peace  an  interchange  of  kindly 
affections  among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  an  univer- 
sal good  will  towards  men.  Philosophy  and  poetry  and 
prophecy  have  all  combined  to  body  forth  its  blessings  and 
have  alike  personified  it  on  earth  and  in  heaven  by  the  mild 
eye  and  the  gentle  murmur  «f  the  Hoty  Dove. 

But  delightful  as  is  the  word,  and  attractive  as  are  its  asso- 
ciations, we  should  not  be  seduced  by  them  to  }aeld  up 
either  right  or  truth  or  justice  for  its  attainment.  It  would 
indeed  be  a  great  burden  rolled  from  our  hearts  if  we  could 
take  our  children  to  our  bosoms,  and  feel  that  they  indeed 
had  a  country — if  we  could  look  upon  our  noble  sons  and 
rejoice  that  they  were  freed  with  honour  from  any  further 
conflict  with  foemen  so  unworthy  of  their  steel— if  we  could 
glance  around  our  hearthstones  and  be  satisfied  that  no  rude 
trumpet  would  again  disturb  their  peace,  no  roar  of  cannon 
drive  us  from  their  shadow — if  we  could  enter  the  temples 
of  God  and  sing  the  augels  song  of  peace  on  earth,  good 
will  towards  men.  But  until  we  can  do  so  with  honor  and 
with  security,  let  us  banish  the  idea  from  our  thoughts.  Let 
there  be  no  making  haste  to  find  Peace.  It  will  come  when 
God  sees  that  war  has  accomplished  his  purposes,  and  it 
ought  to  come  no  sooner.  Unless  we  follow  his  guidance  in 
this  matter,  we  shall  fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  in 
grasping  at  a  shadow,  lose  the  substance  which  we  have 
already  gained  at  the  cost  of  so  much  precious  blood.  We 
seceded  from  the  Government  of  which  we  were  once  a 
part,  because  we  felt  that  under  it  we  no  longer  had  a  coun- 
try. For  what  is  our  country  ?  Our  country  is  in  its  con- 
stitution, and  its  provisions   were  openly   and  shamefully 


A  SERMON.  9 

violated — our  country  is  in  its  religion,  and  its  altars  were 
desecrated  by  infidelity  and  the  vilest  fanaticism — our  country 
is  in  its  institutions,  and  they  were  threatened  with  total  sub- 
version— our  country  is  in  its  social  life,  and  that  was  covered 
all  over  with  rude  abuse  and  malignant  defamation.  And 
shall  we,  for  peace  sake,  think  for  a  moment  of  returning  to 
the  embrace  of  such  an  Union  ?  God  forbid !  Let  us  learn 
at  once  the  stern  truth  that  we  have  no  country  until  we 
make  one.  We  can  never  go  back  to  that  whence  we  came 
out.  "We  should  not  recognize  it  in  its  present  garb  of 
tyranny.  We  should  not  discern  that  once  proud  Eepublic 
under  the  mask  which  it  now  wears,  with  the  oriental  des- 
potism that  rules  over  it,  and  the  oriental  submission  that 
kisses  its  feet.  In  its  delirium  it  has  lost  all  sense  of  regu- 
lated liberty — it  remembers  only  passion  and  vengeance. 
Closing  its  eyes  against  all  truth,  and  shutting  its  ears  against 
all  wisdom,  it  is  striking  at  man  madly  in  its  rage,  and  it  is 
cursing  God  who  has  placed  the  bit  in  its  mouth,  and  is 
saying  to  it,  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  further."  In 
quietness  and  confidence  is  our  strength.  Manly  fortitude 
and  heroic  patience  will  accomplish  for  us  in  due  time  all 
that  we  are  contending  for.  We  did  not  enter  upon  this 
conflict  in  the  temper  of  children,  who  were  quarrelling  for 
some  mere  point  of  pique,  but  with  the  resolution  of  men 
who  perceived  that  every  thing  which  made  life'  tolerable 
was  trembling  in  the  balance.  Let  peace  come  to  us,  and 
let  us  not  forget  our  manhood  and  go  in  search  of  peace. 
We  might  find  a  counterfeit  of  it  among  the  contrivances  of 
man  and  meanwhile  lose  that  heaven-descended  peace  which 
God  will  give  us,  if  we  will  wait  his  will  and  abide  his  dis- 
cipline. Every  thing  forbids  us  to  be  too  solicitous  for 
peace.  Our  consecrated  cause — consecrated  by  the  blood  of 
our  children — the  aid  and  comfort  it  would  give  our  enemies 
— the  permanent  welfare  of  our  posterity.  If  God  sends  it 
to  us,  then  welcome,  bright-eyed  Peace  !  but  woe  to  us  if,  for 
its  sake,  we  sacrifice  one  jot  or  one  tittle  of  our  duty  and  of 
eternal  j  ustice ! 

In  the  present  condition  of  things  such  a  peace  as  we 
ought  to  accept  would  be  impossible.     What  have  we  to 


10  A  SERMON. 

offer  in  exchange  for  all  the  territory  which-  the  enemy  now 
holds  within  the  borders  of  the  Confederate  States,  for  the 
half  of  Tennessee,  for  the  Eastern  and  "Western  regions  of 
Virginia,  for  all  our  rich  sea-coast,  for  our  harbors  and  forts, 
for  that  garden  spot  of  our  country,  lovely  Louisiana  ? 
What  have  we,  at  the  present  moment,  to  cast  in  the  balance 
against  Maryland  and  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  whose  right 
to  determine  their  own  future  destiny,  it  would  be  base  in 
us  to  abandon?  Hence  is  it  that  foreign  mediation  would 
be,  at  this  time,  and  under  our  present  circumstances, 
so  disastrous  to  us,  and  hence  is  it,  I  firmly  believe,  that  God 
has  put  it  into  the  heart  of  our  enemies  to  reject  it.  What 
could  foreign  mediation  effect?  What  could  it  propose  as 
the  basis  of  settlement,  but  some  s\ich  terms  as  European 
diplomacy  has  been  conversant  about  for  ages  ?  Would  you 
consent  .to  peace  upon  the  terms  of  the  uii  possidetis,  each 
party  holding  what  it  possesses  ?  Your  own  solemn  legis- 
lative pledges  cry  out  against  it.  Virginia  would  blush  for 
shame  at  such  a  proposition,  and  would  weep,  as  Rachel,  for 
her  children,  refusing  to  be  comforted.  Louisiana  would  lift 
her  saddened  eyes  and  fettered  arms  and  plead  for  mercy 
and  deliverance.  The  home  of  Jackson  would  burn  with 
indignation  that  the  ashes  of  her  unconquered  hero  should 
be  trampled  upon  by  hirelings  and  slaves.  Old  ocean  would 
murmur  curses  against  you  upon  her  wailing  winds,  and 
would  lash  your  shores  in  fury  at  their  degradation.'  Would 
you  grant  to  your  unscrupulous  enemies  special  commercial 
advantages  and  a  favored  intercourse  ?  This  would  hold  us 
in  as  utter  vassalage  as  we  have  heretofore  been  held,  would 
ruin  our  revenues  and  make  us  tributary  forever  to  North- 
ern industry.  Would  you  pay  money  for  peace  ?  At  such  a 
thought,  the  shade  of  Pinckney  would  arise  from  its  dust, 
and  bid  you  remember  what  Southern  spirit  was,  when  he 
uttered  the  immortal  words,  "Millions  for  defence,  but  not  a 
cent  for  tribute."  Mediation  can  do  us  now  no  good.  It 
might  embarrass  us  and  place  us  in  a  false  position  before 
the  world,  but  it  could  not  advance  us  one  step  towards  an 
honorable  peace.  Let  us  then  give  thanks  this  day  to  God 
for  having  so  hardened  the  heart  and  blinded  the  eyes  of  our 


A  SERMON".  11 

enemies  as  to  induce  them  to  repel  their  best  and  truest 
friend  in  his  advances  for  their  relief. 

But  besides  mediation,  there  is  another  movement  of 
Foreign  Powers  upon  which  many  have  rested  their  hope 
for  peace,  recognition,  followed  by  forcible  intervention  in  our 
behalf.  If  such  a  hope  had  ever  any  basis  of  reality,  it  is 
now„  in  my  opinion, .  forever  put  at  rest  by  the  recent  out- 
break in  Poland  and  its  rumored  extension  to  Hungary. 
Revolution,  and  European  cabinets  will  consider  our  move- 
ment to  be  revolution,  has  had  no  friends  among  the  crowned 
.heads  of  Europe  since  the  convulsions  which  have  swept 
over  their  dominions  again  and  again  since  1789.  It  is  an 
infection  which  they  dread.  It  rises  before  them  perpetually 
like  a  fearful  spectre,  and  sits  with  them  at  their  feasts  and 
troubles  their  hours  of  sleep.  They  have  acquiesced,  'tis  true, 
from  time  to  time,  in  changes  of  dynasty ;  they  have,  under 
very  peculiar  circumstances,  and  when  the  pressure  of  danger 
was  at  their  own  doors,  as  in  the  cases  of  Belgium  and  Italy, 
intervened  and  saved  themselves  from  internal  discord,  but 
the  general  action  of  the  European  powers  has  been  adverse 
to  the  early  recognition  of  Governments  founded  upon  rev- 
olutionary movements,  and  especially  to  any  thing  like  an 
armed  intervention  in  their  favor.  The  revolt  from  Spain 
of  her  South- American  Colonies  began  as  early  as  1810,  and 
although  largely  assisted  by  English  capital  and  English 
muscle,  they  were  not  recognized  by  the  government  of 
Great  Britain  until  1823.  Mexico  declared  her  independ- 
ence in  1813,  and  it  was  not  until  1825  that  she  was  wel- 
comed into  the  family  of  nations.  But  the  most  striking 
example  of  modern  times  is  that  of  Greece.  If  there  was 
any  people  whose  struggle  for  independence  should  have 
met  an  instant  and  enthusiastic  response  in  every  court  of 
Europe,  whose  earliest  movements  should  have  caused  ev- 
ery heart  to  bound  with  joy,  and  every  sword  to  leap  from 
its  scabbard,  it  was  that  of  the  Greeks.  They  were  the  pure 
descendants  of  the  old  Hellenic  race,  whose  history  was  a 
household  word  in  every  abode  of  civilized  man — whose 
philosophy  had  given  tone  and  direction  to  all  the  thought 
of  the  modern  world — whose  literature  had  awakened  Eu- 


12  A  SERMON. 

rope  from  its  sleep  of  centuries,  and  had  irradiated  its  dark- 
ness with  light  and  beauty.     Though  dead  themselves,  their 
voices  had  been  speaking  from  their  graves  and  animating 
the  nations  to  a  lofty  ambition  in  arms  and  letters.     They 
were,  moreover,  Christians,  contending  against  the  ancient 
enemies  of  the  faith,  and  calling  upon  the  Church  of  the 
living  God  to  lift  the  banner  of  the  Cross  once  more  in  con- 
flict with  the  Crescent.     Hear  their  own  eloquent  appeal  to 
the  Congress  of  Verona,  made  in  the  second  year  of  their 
struggle :     "  The  sentiments  of  piety,  of  humanity  and  of 
justice  by  which  this  assemblage  of  sovereigns  is  animated, , 
inspire  the  Government  of  Greece  with  the  hope  that  its 
just  demand  will  be  favorably  listened  to,.     If,  contrary  to 
all  expectation,  the  offer  of  the  Government  should  be  re- 
jected, the  present  declaration  must  be  considered  a  formal 
protest  which  Greece  lays  this  day  at  the  foot  of  the  Throne 
of  Divine  Justice — a  protest  which  a  Christian  people  ad- 
dresses with  confidence  to  Europe  and  to  the  great  family  of 
Christianity.     Weakened  and  worn  out,  the  Greeks  will  then 
place  their  hope  only  in  the  strength  of  God.     Sustained  by 
his  all-powerful  hand,  they  will  not  bend  before  tyranny ; 
Christians,  persecuted  through  four  centuries  for  having  re- 
mained faithful  to  our  Saviour  and  to  God  our  Sovereign 
Master,  we  will  defend,  even  to  the  last,  his  Church,  our  fire- 
sides and  our  tombs ;  happy  to  descend  into  them  freemen 
and  Christians,  or  to  conquer,  as  we  have  hitherto  conquered 
by  the  alone  strength  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  by  his 
Divine  power."     And  what  was  the  response  of  this  Con- 
gress  of  Sovereigns?     A  cold,  denial  even  of  recognition  ; 
an  utter  refusal  to  give  any  countenance  to  this  illustrious 
people  who  had  sprang,  as  if  awakened  by  some  new  Tyrtseus, 
into  the  arena  of  nations,  and  were  fighting  upon  the  very 
battle  fields  which  Leonidas  and  Themistocles  had  made  im- 
mortal.    It  was  not,  until  with  a  heroism  worthy  of  their 
race  and  an  endurance  which  would  have  illustrated  mar- 
tyrs, they  had  waded  through  seven  years  of  the  fiercest 
warfare — through  seven  years  of  fire  and  blood  and  massacre — 
through  seven  years  of  appalling  misery  such  as  we  have 
not  yet  dreamed  of — that  the  selfish  hearts  of  the  nations 


A  SERMON.  13 

would  listen  to  their  cries,  and  deliver  them  from  the  brutal 
ferocity  of  the  Mussulman !  Should  we,  in  the  face  of  such 
examples,  lean  upon  any  such  hope  as  foreign  intervention? 
It  was  well,  perhaps,  ere  we  had  become  conscious  of  our 
internal  resources,  that  the  public  mind  should  have  been 
flattered  with  such  a  delusion.  Possibly  it  encouraged  some 
who  might  otherwise  have  fainted  in  the  hour  of  our  weak- 
ness, but  now,  when  we  have  aroused  ourselves  like  a  strong- 
man from  sleep,  and  such  a  reliance  is  no  longer  of  any  con- 
sequence to  us,  it  is  well  to  say  that  we  should  never  have 
looked  for  it.  Any  such  expectation  was  contrary  to  the 
lessons  of  history,  and  was  rested  upon  grounds  which  have 
proved  themselves  utterly  fallacious. 

There  are  but  two  sources  whence  we  may  look  for  such 
a  peace  as  we  should  be  willing  to  accept — a  rupture  between 
some  great  naval  power  and  the  United  States,  which  would 
permit  us  to  recover  our  sea-coast,  together  with  our  cities, 
harbors,  and  ports,  or  a  civil  war  among  the  remaining  States, 
which  would  occupy  our  adversaries  at  home,  and  enable  us  to 
expel  them  from  our  territories.  When  either  of  these  con- 
tingencies occurs,  then  may  we  hope  for  peace  ;  then  may 
we  begin  to  sing  our  song  of  deliverance.  But  not  until 
then.  What  the  probability  is  of  either  of  these  events, 
you  can  judge  as  well  as  myself.  They  are  both  in  God's 
power  to  bring  about  naturally,  whenever  it  pleases  Him, 
and  in  my  opinion  he  is  gradually  leading  up  our  enemies  to 
this  catastrophe.  The  little  cloud,  like  a  man's  hand,  arising 
out  of  the  sea,  is  beginning  to  show  itself,  and  their  heavens 
may  soon  be  black  with  storm  and  wind.-  This  is  clearly, 
in  my  estimation,  the  next  manifestation  which  God  will 
make  of  Himself  in  this  conflict.  But,  like  the  prophecies 
of  Scripture,  so  are  these  movements  upon  the  stage  of  the 
world.  We  may  understand  what  is  the  coming  event  which 
is  to  be  evolved  from  the  curtained  future,  but  we  cannot  al- 
ways reckon  the  time  which  that  event  will  consume  in  its 
complete  development.  Time,  in  God's  view,  is  very  differ- 
ent from  time  in  our  view.  A  thousand  years  are  with  Him 
as  one  day,  and  one  day  as  a  thousand  years.  That  our 
enemies  are  advancing,  step  by  step,  to   a  deep  and  bitter 


14  A  SERMON. 

humiliation,  I  feel  no  doubt,  and  never  have  felt  any  ;  but 
how  long  a  period  may  be  required  by  God  to  bring  them 
into  the  position,  when  it  shall  work  upon  them  the  moral 
discipline  it  is  intended  to  produce,  or  for  how  many  years 
our  sins  may  delay  our  deliverance,  are  points  which  no  man 
can  certainly  know.  The  Israelites  were  kept  forty  years  in 
the  wilderness,  because  they  needed  that  discipline.  And 
when  I  perceive  the  love  of  money  which  is  rapidly  pervad- 
ing the  Confederate  States — that  love  of  money  which  the 
Apostle  calls  the  root  of  all  evil — I  tremble  lest  we  shall  yet 
be  pierced  through  with  many  sorrows.  It  is  sad  to  think 
how  a  noble  cause,  which  should  fill  the  whole  heart,  and 
absorb  all  the  energies  of  our  people,  is  embarrassed  and 
may  be  sacrificed  by  a  spirit  of  covetousness,  the  lowest 
and  meanest  of  all  decent  passions,  and  which  God  ranks  in 
his  holy  Scriptures  alongside  of  uncleanness  and  idolatry. 
Is  this  a  time  for  you,  0  citizens,  when  our  gallant  soldiers 
are  breasting  with  their  indomitable  valor  the  flood  of  iniqui- 
ty and  desolation  which  is  threatening  to  involve  in  one  in- 
discriminate ruin  your  homes  and  your  altars,  to  be  filling 
their  hearts  with  anxiety  about  the  loved  ones  whom  they 
have  left  behind  them  ?  to  be  reducing,  through  your  unwise 
speculations  and  silly  competitions,  the  comforts  of  your 
defenders  to  the  very  lowest  point  of  subsistence  ?  If  you 
will  prey  upon  one  another,  for  God's  sake  do  not  prey  upon 
the  soldier.  Let  him  be  an  exception  to  your  scale  of 
prices.  You  satisfy  your  consciences  by  whispering  to  them 
that  the  price  of  everything  has  risen  alike,  and  that,  to  protect 
yourselves,  you  must  sell  at  extravagant  prices,  because  you 
buy  at  extravagant  prices.  But  remember  that  the  pay  of 
the  soldier  does  not  increase  ;  that  his  little  pittance  remains 
the  same,  while  your  charges  upon  him  are  increasing  with 
strides  so  enormous  that  imagination  can  scarce  keep  pace 
with  them.  And  remember,  also,  that  this  unnecessary  ele- 
vation of  prices  prevents  the  Government  from  increasing 
that  pay,  because  any  enlargement  of  its  expenses  would 
only  further  depreciate  the  currency,  and  would  ultimately 
force  the  Government  into  a  collision  with  its  people,  which 
is  most  sincerely  to  be   deprecated,   or  would  compel  it 


A  SERMON.  15 

to  give  up  the  struggle  in  despair.  A  country  can  never 
be  conquered  so  long  as  its  people  are  unselfish  and  self- 
sacrificing,  but  when  the  cause  is  forgotten  in  the  mad  hunt 
after  money,  then  the  eye  becomes  dim,  and  the  arm  falls 
nerveless.  "  It  becomes,"  as  Isaiah  says,  "  a  people  of  no 
understanding  :  therefore,  He  that  made  them  will  not  have 
mercy  on  them,  and  He  that  formed  them  will  shew  them 
no  favor." 

There  is  no  prospect,  then,  before  us,  but  the  prospect  of 
continued  war,  while  God  is  working  out  for  us  our  deliver- 
ance. Peace  cannot  come  to  us  now,  so  far  as  man  can  see,, 
save  through  the  course  of  events  which  we  have  just  de- 
tailed. With  God,  of  course,  all  things  are  possible,  and 
He  can,  if  He  chooses,  produce  such  a  change  in  the  hearts 
and  feelings  of  our  enemies  as  to  cause  them  at  once  to  de- 
sist from  their  unjust  invasion  of  our  homes  and  firesides. 
But  as  He  always  acts  through  natural  means  ;  always  works 
out  His  purposes  by  a  sequence  of  events  which  are  entirely 
within  the  scope  of  unbelief  to  consider  as  customary,  we  can 
scarcely  hope  for  such  a  divine  intervention.  Nor  will  our 
consciences  permit  us,  at  this  moment,  to  feel  that  we  de- 
serve it.  We  must  therefore  submit  to  God's  will,  and 
become  learners  once  more  in  the  school  of  w&r.  We  are 
not  morally  prepared  for  peace  and  prosperity,  for  as  soon 
as  God  turned  the  tide  of  victory  in  our  favor,  we  set  our 
hearts  upon  covetousness,  and  fell  down  to  vorship  the 
golden  calf.  Let  us  endeavor,  then,  to  understand  the  les- 
sons which  are  wrapped  up  for  us  in  the  experience  of  this 
war,  so  that  "out  of  the  eater  may  come  forth  meat,  and 
out  of  the  strong  sweetness." 

War  is  a  great  eater,  a  fierce,  terrible,  omnivorous  eater. 
It  eats  out  wealth,  property,  life — it  devours  cities  and  na- 
tions— it  tears  to  pieces  laws  and  institutions,  and  scatters 
their  fragments  to  the  winds — it  consumes  comfort,  and 
happiness  and  joy — it  lacerates  the  feelings  and  the  affec- 
tious — it  devours  religion,  and  tramples  under  foot  its  tem- 
ples and  its  altars — it  rides  in  desolation  upon  the  storm  of 
passion  and  the  whirlwind  of  vengeance.  It  is  classed  by 
God  with  famine  and  pestilence,  among  His  sore  judgments,. 


16  A   SERMON. 

» 
and   when     He   would  threaten   His  people    cruelly,    He 

threatens  to  bring  the  sword  upon  them.  The  blood  of 
man  is  counted  in  the  Bible  as  a  most  mysterious  agent, 
crying  from  the  earth  against  him  that  spilleth  it,  and  pol- 
luting the  land  upon  whose  skirts  its  drops  are  sprinkled. 
And  yet  with  all  this,  as  God's  means  of  discipline,  it  has 
its  moral  and  political  lessons,  and  God  is  keeping  us  per- 
chance under  its  cruel  yoke  that  we  may  learn  them  ere  we 
assume  our  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Heraclitus,  one  of  the  wisest  of  the  Greek  philosophers 
who  preceded  Socrates,  carried  this  view  of  the  value  of  war 
as  a  teacher  and  a  producer  to  such  an  extent,  that  he  ad- 
vanced it  as  one  of  his  aphorisms,  and  left  it  as  a  legacy  to 
Greece,  that  "  War  was  the  father  of  all  things"* — that  all 
things  are  evolved  by  the  strife  of  antagonistic  forces.  Even 
under  the  revelation  of  God  this  is  a  very  manifest  truth  in 
many  particulars,  and  we  can  very  well  understand  how  one 
who  looked  out  upon  the  world — the  natural  as  well  as  the 
moral  world — without  any  heavenly  light  to  guide  him,  or 
any  divine  voice  to  teach  him,  might  consider  this  strife  as 
the  law  which  God  had  impressed  upon  His  creation.  He 
perceived  everything  to  be  at  war— cold  with  heat — light 
with  darkness — evil  with  good — conscience  with  passion — 
barbarism  with  civilization — and  out  of  this  strife  to  come 
all  the  progress  and  all  the  blessing  which  the  world  then 
knew.  Coild  he  have  known  the  sublime  truth,  of  which 
his  contemporaries,  the  prophets  and  kings  of  the  Jewish 
dispensation,  had  been  darkly  informed  by  prophecy,  that 
truth  and  salvation  were  to  be  evolved  out  of  the  warfare 
between  Christ  and  that  "arch  angel  ruined,"  he  might  well 
have  considered  his  aphorism  as  including  divine  as  well  as 
human  things.  And  while  I  would  apply  it  in  a  very  re- 
stricted sense,  to  the  wisdom  which  may  be  gained  from  the 
warfare  of  nation  with  nation,  I  am  satisfied  that  it  is  quite 
as  true  in  that  connection,  as  in  its  application  to  physical  or 
moral  strife. 

Peace  is  not  always  the  safest  condition   which  a   fallen 

*  IJoXzfxoq,  7taz7]p  navrcov. 


A  SERMON.  17 

being  can  enjoy.  There  may  be  a  cry  of  peace,  peace,  when 
there  is  no  peace ;  a  long  prosperity,  during  which  there 
may  creep  over  us  an  entire  relaxation  of  moral  principle, 
in  which  all  the  energy  of  virtue  may  die  out,  and  truth  her- 
self be  obscured  under  the  sophistry  of  appearances.  Un- 
der this  condition  of  things,  the  wholesome  discipline  of 
adversity  is  the  very  kindest  application  which  God  can 
make  to  our  necessities,  for  it  at  once  tears  the  mask  away 
from  things  around  us,  and  points  us  to  the  stern  reality  of 
life.  If  we  be  true  at  heart — if  the  corruption  has  not  ex- 
tended to  the  core — we  may  be  saved,  for  the  struggle  then 
begins  between  truth  and  error,  and,  by  the  help  of  God,  the 
right  becomes  triumphant,  and  we  attain  a  wisdom  which 
goes  with  us  through  life.  And  as  with  the  individual,  so 
with  nations.  A  peace  without  interruption  engenders 
vices  which,  unless  checked,  lead  rapidly  to  corruption  and 
decay.  Prosperity  follows  peace,  and  wealth  prosperity,  and 
luxury  wealth,  and  moral  degradation  luxury,  and  thus  this 
greatest  blessing  of  God,  if  man  could  rightly  use  it,  is 
transmuted,  through  the  inevitable  alchemy  of  sin,  into  its 
corresponding  curse.  The  civil  state  needs  continual  agita- 
tion and  fresh  infusion  of  virtue  from  the  chastisements 
of  God,  just  as  a  lake  needs  the  purifying  winds  of  heaven, 
and  reviving  waters  from  the  fresh  springs  of  nature. 
Without  conflict  and  chastisement,  there  is  but  little  exer- 
cise for  the  higher  energies  of  man,  whether  intellectual  or 
moral,  and  but  little  scope  for  the  nobler  characteristics  of 
self-denial  and  self-sacrifice.  The  old  Roman  virtue,  which 
has  passed  into  a  proverb,  and  which  was  certainly  the  best 
development  of  national  life  which  the  world  had  known, 
before  Christian  civilization  refined  and  perfected  it,  was 
built  up  out  of  this  continued  strife  with  adverse  circum- 
stances, and  did  not  decay  until  she  had  conquered  the  world. 
Without  this  conflict  in  the  formation  and  growth  of  a  na- 
tion, effeminacy  creeps  in — public  virtue  becomes  enervate 
— the  spirit  of  a  people  exhales,  even  while  the  forms  of  its 
government  are  preserved.  I  need  not  refer  you  to  our  own 
unhappy  republic  as  an  illustration  of  this  truth. 

The  meat  which  we  are  bringing  forth  out  of  this  fierce 
0 


18  A  SERMON.      • 

eater,  War,  is  strong  and  wholesome,  but  not  always  palatable, 
It  is,  in  some  respects,  rather  humiliating  to  our  conceit, 
and  derogatory  to  our  foresight.  But  it  is  well  for  us  to 
look  the  truth  at  once  in  the  face,  and  to  learn  as  soon  as 
possible  our  national  experience.  It  will  be  a  most  happy 
circumstance  if  we  can  enter  upon  our  career  as  an  indepen- 
dent power  upon  right  principles,  and  not  be  compelled  to 
retrace  our  steps  through  sorrow  and  suffering.  If  out  of 
the  strong  wrestlings  with  adversity  we  can  bring  sweetness 
for  our  children,  we  may  go  to  our  graves  with  thankful 
hearts,  and  be  sure  that  their  blessings  will  fall  thick  upon 
our  memories, 

At  the  commencement  of  our  revolution,  and  for  a  long 
time  prior  to  it,  we  were  boasting  that  we  held  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  earth,  and  especially  England  and  France,  the 
leading  powers  of  Europe,  in  such  bonds  of  dependence 
upon  us,  that  they  could  never  permit  any  war  which  shut 
them  out  from  our  staple  productions,  to  continue  for  any 
number  of  years.  We  believed  very  sincerely  that  the 
cotton  interest  constituted  so  large  a  portion  of  their  manu- 
facturing and  commercial  wealth,  that  any  serious  interrup- 
tion of  the  supply  would  create  not  only  great  distress  in 
those  countries,  but  would  perhaps  produce  revolution.  Under 
this  delusion  we  continued  for  eighteen  months  after  our 
movement  began,  and  it  is  not  yet  entirely  dissipated.  It 
will  require  at  least  two  years  more  of  British  endurance  to 
convince  us  of  our  mistake,  but  we  are,  nevertheless,  learn- 
ing our  lesson  by  degrees.  We  are  finding  out  that  God 
does  not  permit,  under  his  Providential  arrangements,  any 
one  nation  to  hold  in  its  hand  the  fate,  or  even  the  destiny 
of  other  nations,  but  that  climate,  soil,  labor,  staples,  are  so 
distributed  throughout  the  world,  that  if  a  supply  of  any 
necessary  article  is  dried  up  in  one  direction,  its  production 
can  be  forced  in  some  other  direction.  That  we  hold  great 
advantages  over  any  other  portion  of  the  earth  in  the  growth 
of  our  great  staples,  no  one  can  deny.  We  can  defy  compe- 
tition, because  of  the  peculiar  conditions  of  our  labor  and 
climate,  but  we  cannot  rule  the  world  as  we  once  conceived 
that  we  could.       Indeed,   it  becomes  a  serious  question 


A  SERMON.  19 

whether  our  blockade  is  not  playing  into  the  hands  of  Bri- 
tish statesmen,  who  have  long  desired  to  be  freed  from  the 
dependence  upon  us  under  which  they  have  writhed  for  so 
many  years,  and  which  has  again  and  again  induced  them 
to  submit  to  aggression  on  the  part  of  the  United  States. 
They  hope,  under  the  stimulus  of  high  prices,  and  of  ne- 
cessity, to  engage  other  countries,  and  especially  their  own 
colonies,  in  the  culture  of  cotton,  and  thus  carry  to  perfec- 
tion their  vast  colonial  system.  We  must  dismiss  this  idea, 
and  prepare  ourselves  to  enter  heartily  and  generously  into 
the  social  life  of  the  world,  and  give  and  take  as  the  rest  of 
the  nations  give  and  take.  And  it  is  a  most  important  les- 
son for  us  to  learn  at  once,  for  it  will  make  us  understand 
the  necessity  of  diversifying  our  pursuits,  and  of  strength- 
ening ourselves  against  the  domination  of  foreign  powers. 
Had  we  entered  upon  our  career  as  an  independent  people 
without  the  lessons  of  this  war,  we  should  have  been  intro- 
duced into  life  with  all  the  coxcombry  of  youthful  conceit, 
and  should  have  found  out  in  another  way,  that  cotton  was 
not  king,  and  that  other  nations  had  weapons  more  effica- 
cious than  staples  with  which  to  meet  our  pretensions.  We 
shall  now,  I  trust,  take  our  place  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth  with  the  manly  maturity  of  experience,  fully  sensible 
of  the  value  of  our  resources,  but  not  flaunting  them  forever  in 
the  face  of  the  world,  and  properly  prepared  to  defend  them 
with  an  army  and  a  navy  which  shall  command  the  respect 
of  the  world,  while  they  shall  not  tempt  us  to  foreign  ag- 
gression. This  is  one  piece  of  wholesome,  though  not  pala- 
table meat  from  the  mouth  of  the  eater. 

When  we  entered  upon  this  struggle,  all  of  us  were  advo- 
cates of  a  system  of  free  trade  with  the  world,  which,  if 
adopted,  would  forever  have  confined  us  to  agricultural 
pursuits,  as  the  single  channel  of  our  industry.  The  condi- 
tion to  which  tariffs  under  the  old  Government  had  reduced 
us,  produced  in  us  an  intolerable  aversion  to  all  restrictions 
upon  trade,  and  drove  us,  at  one  period,  into  forcible  resist- 
ance to  their  extension.  And  this  was  all  right  under  the 
circumstances  in  which  we  were  then  placed.  So  long  as 
the  duties  upon  imports  affected  mainly  our  interests,  and  the 


20  A  SERMON. 

money  collected  by  them  was  distributed  in  another  section 
of  the  Union,  it  was  for  us  an  emasculating  process,  which 
was  fast  exhausting  us.  "We  were  really  nothing  more  than 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  under  the  workings 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  But  the  pressure 
of  this  war  is  teaching  us  new  ideas  upon  this  subject,  and 
is  bidding  us  beware  how  we  ever  permit  ourselves  to  be 
caught  again,  as  we  now  are,  without  clothing,  and  shoes, 
and  iron,  and  salt,  and  the  absolute  necessaries  of  life. 
Free  trade  is  well  enough  in  regard  to  those  articles  which 
are  luxuries,  but  it  should  never  prevail  so  far  as  to  make 
us  dependent  upon  other  nations  for  those  things  which  a 
people  must  have,  under  any  circumstances,  whether  of  peace 
or  of  war.  Luckily  for  us,  this  war  will  force  upon  us  such 
duties,  for  revenue  sake,  in  order  to  preserve  the  credit  of 
our  Government,  as  will  necessarily  encourage  among  us  the 
manufactures  that  we  most  need.  And  still  more  happily 
for  us,  the  conduct  of  foreign  governments  towards  us  has 
put  us  under  no  obligations  to  any  of  them  to  arrange  our 
revenue  duties  otherwise  than  we  shall  see  to  be  best  for  our- 
selves. We  can  never  be  a  great  or  a  'prosperous  people 
until  we  change  our  policy,  and  combine  with  agriculture 
both  manufactures  and  commerce.  Entire  freedom  of  trade 
would  be  the  soundest  policy,  if  the  world  would  only 
promise  to  keep  at  peace  forever.  The  principles  of  unre- 
stricted commerce  are  abstractly  true,  but  they  cannot  be 
put  into  practice  without  peril,  so  long  as  nation  will  make 
war  against  nation,  and  people  will  rise  up  against  people. 
Under  the  American  system  of  the  old  Government,  which 
we  all  so  bitterly  oppossed,  our  suffering  did  not  arise  so 
much  from  duties  considered  abstractly  in  themselves,  as 
from  the  fact  that  they  operated  almost  entirely  against  the 
export  Of  our  great  staples,  while  the  money  collected  from 
them  was  almost  all  spent  elsewhere.  Of  the  money  ex- 
pended from  the  period  of  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  until  1828,  for  all  legitimate  purposes  under  the 
Constitution,  such  as  light-houses,  fortifications,  &c,  fifty- 
eight  millions  were  expended  north  of  the  Potomac,  and  but 
eight  millions  south  of  it.     Such  a  condition  of  things  could 


A  SEKMOtf.  21 

never  occur  under  our  new  Confederacy,  because  our  pur- 
suits are  similar,  our  population  homogeneous,  and  our 
interests  inseparably  united.  This  is  another  morsel  of  meat 
from  the  mouth  of  the  eater. 

Until  within  a  year  after  our  war  began,  many  of  our  own 
people,  and  almost  all  the  nations  outside  of  us,  considered 
the  institution  of  slavery  as  resting  upon  a  very  insecure 
basis.  They  almost  universally  believed  that  domestic  in- 
surrection would  accompany  foreign  war,  and  that  we  should 
find  our  slaves  rising  "en  masse,"  and.  distracting  all  our 
efforts.  Those  who  had  studied  this  question  most  thorough- 
ly, and  looked  at  it  in  the  light  of  philosophy,  and  especially 
of  the  Scriptures,  did  not  fall  into  this  error,  and  were  satis- 
fied from  the  beginning  that  the  institution  would  come  out 
of  the  war  stronger  than  it  went  into  it.  Two  years  of  the 
war  have  rid  every  one  of  any  evil  anticipations  upon  this 
head,  and  have  satisfied  the  United  States  government  that 
if  these  people  are  to  change  their  condition,  it  must  be 
changed  for  them  by  external  force.  And  while  this  quies- 
cence on  the  part  of  our  servants  vindicates  us  from  the 
charges  of  cruelty  and  barbarity  which  have  been  so  indus- 
triously circulated  against  us,  it  is  also  teaching  us  that  we 
can,  hereafter,  with  entire  safety,  and  with  most  excellent 
results  to  ourselves,  introduce  them  gradually  to  a  higher 
moral  and  religious  life.  They  know  all  that  is  going  on. 
They  are  well,  informed  about  the  proceedings  of  our  ene- 
mies, and  about  their  pretended  philanthropy,  and  yet  what 
advantage  have  they  taken  of  it  ?  When  were  they  ever 
more  quiet,  more  civil,  more  useful,  more  contented  than 
they  now  are  ?  Ignorance  is  really  our  worst  enemy  amongst 
them,  and  I  sincerely  hope  that  when  this  war  is  over,  we 
shall,  in  token  of  their  fidelity  and  good  will,  render  their 
domestic  relations  more  permanent,  and  consult  more  closely 
their  feelings  and  affections,  and  thus  extract  sweetness  from 
the  strong  mouth  of  this  indiscriminate  eater. 

Before  this  war  came  upon  us,  the  South  almost  worship- 
ped personal  bravery  and.  physical  courage.  They  were 
considered  as  the  requisite  qualities  of  every  gentleman,  and 
whosoever  did  not  possess  them,    was  pitied  ■  and  despised, 


22  A  SERMON. 

even  while  he  was  tolerated.  No  proper  distinction  was 
made  between  the  courage  of  mere  temperament  and  the 
moral  courage  of  high  principle.  The  duel  was  set  up  as 
the  test  of  a  man's  pretension  to  this  quality.  And  this 
arose,  partly  from  the  natural  spirit  of  our  race,  but  was, 
likewise,  a  remnant  of  feudal  usages,  which  are  certainly 
out  of  place  in  our  days.  But  this  war  is  teaching  us  what 
an  universal  quality  personal  courage  is,  and  how  few  men 
there  are  who  are  afraid  of  death  upon  the  battle-field. 
How  many  tens  of  thousands  of  soldiers  are  there  who, 
without  any  stimulus,  save  the  sense  of  duty  and  the  im- 
pulse of  patriotism,  march  fearlessly  up  to  the  cannon's 
mouth,  literally  sport  with  wounds  and  death,  and  stand 
upon  the  outermost  verge  of  peril,  and  their  cheek  never 
blanches,  and  their  step  never  falters.  And  is  this  physical 
courage,  which  is  so  valuable,  yet  so  common,  to  be  estima- 
ted above  that  moral  courage,  which  is  so  rare — that  courage 
which  will  not  follow  a  multitude  to  do  evil — which  will 
breast  the  world  in  arms  for  principle — which  will  restrain 
the  madness  of  the  people  at  every  sacrifice  of  place,  of 
property,  and  of  life  ?  What  we  have  needed  in  our  civil 
affairs  in  the  past  has  been  this  moral  courage,  and  now  we 
are  learning  in  this  war  how  much  more  rare  a  quality  it  is 
than  mere  personal  bravery — such  courage  as  made  our 
gallant  Johnson — Sydney  in  name  and  Sydney  in  nature — 
bear  and  suffer  more  than  martyrdom,  and  then  lay  down 
in  quiet  dignity  his  valued  life,  that  his  country's  weakness 
might  not  be  exposed — such  courage  as  led  our  own  heroic 
Tatnall  to  disappoint  a  nation's  hopes,  and  burn  his  ship 
rather  than  sacrifice  his  brave  and  trustful  men  to  a  selfish  and 
bubble  reputation  for  daring — such  courage  as  has  qualified 
our  peerless  President  to  face  all  calumny,  rather  than  deviate 
one  hair's  breadth  from  his  own  clear  perception  of 
his  country's  good.  It  requires  brave  men  to  do  these 
things.  No  common  man  can  do  them.  And  the  longer 
the  war  lasts,  the  more  will  it  de\»elope  such  characteristics, 
and  moral  courage  will  rise  in  value,  and  mere  physical 
courage — that  which  resolves  bravery  into  brawling  and 
duelling  and  private  rencontres — will  sink  into  merited  in- 


A  SERMON.  23 

significance.  No  people  is  more  brave  than  the  people 
which  can  boast  of  Nelson  and  Collingwood,  of  Hill  and 
Wellington,  and  yet  they  find  nobler  employment  for  their 
courage  than  in  wasting  it  upon  the  field  of  private  revenge. 
And  if  we  learn  this  truth,  we  shall  indeed  gain  another 
morsel  of  delicious  sweetness  from  the  grasp  of  the  strong. 

These  are  some  of  the  blessings  which  God  is  permitting 
us  to  take  hold  of,  even  in  the  midst  of  cruel  war ;  and 
meanwhile  he  has  not  left  us  without  great  comfort.  In  the 
last  ten  months.  He  has  granted  us  an  almost  uninterrupted 
series  of  victories,  as  if  to  give  us  heart  and  endurance  for 
the  conflict  which  He  sees  it  best  for  us  that  we  should  con- 
tinue to  wage.  Disappointed,  as  we  have  been,  in  our  hopes 
of  peace,  the  Father,  who  is  disciplining  us,  has  not  given 
us  over  to  despair.  Peace,  with  its  soft  eye  and  its  radiant 
wing,  has  not  come  to  us,  but  victory  has  !  Victory,  under 
circumstances  most  glorious  and  unexpected — not  only  on 
the  land,  but  upon  the  sea.  His  angel  has  planted  one  foot  on 
the  earth  and  the  other  on  the  ocean,  and  with  his  sword  of 
vengeance  has  smitten  this  insulting  and  vain-glorious  na- 
tion. And  what  a  noble  spirit  has  He  infused  into  the  heart 
of  our  Confederacy !  How  it  has  warmed  anew  into  fervor 
Yirginia,  that  old  mother  of  heroes  and  of  statesmen  !  How 
grandly  she  breasts  the  storm !  Under  the  shadow  of  the 
Federal  Government  she  seemed  to  be  sinking  into  the  slum- 
ber of  death,  as  one  dies  under  the  shade  of  the  poisonous 
Upas  tree.  But  at  the  war-cry  of  her  children,  "  Sic  semper 
Tyrannis"  how  her  rich  blood  has  rushed  back  upon  her 
heart,  and  startled  her  into  life !  The  sound  of  freedom's 
cry  has  disenchanted  her,  and  she  has  sprung  full  armed 
into  the  arena.  Her  noble  sons  have  gathered  around  her 
from  her  hills  and  from  her  valleys,  from  all  her  fields  of 
historic  fame,  from  the  blue  waters  of  the  Chesapeake  to  the 
dark  rushing  torrent  of  the  Kanawha— sons  worthy  of  such 
a  mother.  All  her  old  energy  has  come  back  to  her.  All 
her  power  of  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice  has  revived  within 
her.  Proud,  fearless,  indomitable,  she  looks  into  the  very 
eye  of  tyranny,  and  makes  it  quail  before  her  majesty  of 
right  and  truth  I     The  mother  of  States,  she  bares  her  bo- 


24      «.;  A  SERMON. 

som  to  receive  upon  it  the  strokes  which  are  aimed  at  her 
children.  Hurling  defiance  in  the  teeth  of  her  oppressors, 
she  prepares  herself  to  conquer  or  to  die.  She  hopes,  she 
prays,  she  struggles  for  victory,  but  knowing  that  everything 
is  in  the  hands  of  God,  she  presses  on,  uttering  the  noble 
words  of  DeRanville — "  If  the  genius  of  evil  is  to  prove 
triumphant,  if  legitimate  government  is  again  to  fall,  let  it 
at  least  fall  with  honor ;  shame  alone  has  no  future." 


